March 22

Page Two

Many experiment with new life-styles in search of happiness. Others seek money and possessions as the way to find it. Some submerge themselves in self-improvement programs. The results from these efforts are meager. What, then, does it take to make us happy? These articles explore both what students of human emotions have discovered and what God’s Word says about happiness

Happiness​—In Pursuit of It 3

Happiness​—What It Takes to Find It 4

Happiness​—In Pursuit of It

THE United States Declaration of Independence proclaims the right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ For many today, the key word is pursuit. They do it avidly, filling every minute with frenzied activity. Pouring into stadiums for sporting events, hunched over computer screens for electronic games, glued to TV programs to fill the evening hours, planning weekends packed with excitement, touring the world on flying junkets, and otherwise busily involving themselves in a whirl of social events. Many even resort to harmful drugs to reach emotional highs. Anything and everything to avoid unfilled spaces where they might have to sit quietly and face themselves​—and boredom. This frenetic pursuit of happiness, however, never catches up to genuine happiness.

Some pursue new life-styles in their happiness quest. Marriage is no longer considered binding​—easy come easy go, divorce on any grounds or no grounds, children bounced back and forth between the parents. Single individuals promiscuously indulge in free sex. Couples live together without marriage​—no commitment, no strings attached, free to split and run on any whim. Couples live together in homosexual relationships, or individually pursue their perversions. In all this trial-and-error experimenting, people are only sowing to the flesh and will ultimately reap mental anguish, guilt feelings, jealousies, traumatic breakups, and diseases​—often incurable. The “new morality” harvests even greater miseries than the old immorality.

Many others equate happiness with material possessions, but their accumulation only heightens an acquisitive itch that craves ever more scratching. Ad agencies happily scratch it, peddling glamorous images for them to project​—images to be sustained solely by the right brand-name clothes to wear, the wines to drink, the cars to drive, the homes to acquire, plus an endless string of other externals with which to surround themselves.

Science swells the materialistic flood, as biologist René Dubos complained: “All too often, science is now being used for technological applications that have nothing to do with human needs and aim only at creating new artificial wants.” These wants, he says, when satisfied “have not added much to happiness or to the significance of life.” In the affluent nations technology has been harnessed to witless production for mindless consumption. For many the splurge of consumerism borders on the compulsive. Spiritual values all but suffocate under the materialistic avalanche.

When Stewart Udall was United States secretary of the interior, he said: “We have the most automobiles of any country in the world​—and the worst junkyards. We’re the most mobile people on earth ​—and we endure the most congestion. We produce the most energy, and we have the foulest air.” He said that years ago, and he called it “a catastrophe of continental proportions.” Now, years later, it is a catastrophe of global proportions. Years ago the mayor of a large American city quipped that “if we weren’t careful we’d be remembered as the generation that put a man on the moon while standing knee-deep in garbage.” Now, years later, many scientists are warning that we may be the last generation​—period.

If our feelings of self-worth are nurtured only by external possessions rather than internal values, those feelings soon become anemic and leave us prey to a gnawing discontent. Materialism with its superficial trappings does nothing to satisfy the deep inner needs of the human spirit, and it will never lead to happiness. “Unrestricted satisfaction of all desires,” psychoanalyst Erich Fromm said, “is not conducive to well-being, nor is it the way to happiness or even to maximum pleasure.” But long before Fromm, an inspired wise man said it more pointedly: “I have also learned why people work so hard to succeed: it is because they envy the things their neighbors have.”​—Ecclesiastes 4:4, Today’s English Version.

Some, discouraged and disillusioned, seek satisfaction by submerging themselves in meaningless preoccupations with self. Of this endeavor The Culture of Narcissism says: “Having no hope of improving their lives in any of the ways that matter, people have convinced themselves that what matters is psychic self-improvement: getting in touch with their feelings, eating health food, taking lessons in ballet or belly-dancing, immersing themselves in the wisdom of the East . . . They cultivate more vivid experiences, seek to beat sluggish flesh to life, attempt to revive jaded appetites.”​—Pages 29, 39, 40.

To pursue happiness through a whirl of activity, or new life-styles, or material pursuits, or preoccupation with self​—not one of these ever catches up to the real and lasting happiness.

What does it take, then, to make you happy?

Happiness​—What It Takes to Find It

YOU must breathe. You must drink. You must eat. You must sleep. All of this is obvious. Your body demands this just to stay alive. But more, much more, is needed to make you happy. Clothing and shelter, certainly. And, yes, other material necessities, along with some simple comforts and pleasures. Many say lots of money would make them happy​—yet many who are rich are also miserable.

Just what are our needs for happiness?

Consider this illustration. We buy a car. The manufacturer tells us its needs: fuel in the tank, water in the radiator, air in the tires, oil in the crankcase, and so on. We meet its needs. It purrs along beautifully.

But what are our needs? Far more complex than those of any machine. There is a spirit in man that has needs beyond material things. Unless these needs of the spirit within us are met, there will be no contentment, no happiness. Happiness is an inside job, so to speak. It is the way we are made. The needs of both body and spirit must be met. Jesus pointed this out: “Man must live, not on bread alone, but on every utterance coming forth through Jehovah’s mouth.”​—Matthew 4:4.

A balance between the material and the spiritual is needed. Neglect either one and there is a lack. Of the two, the more crucial one is more often the neglected one. The happy life is not a glut of luxury. The happy person is not content with commercially produced pleasure, with the discotheque or night-club idea of a good time. He heeds the wisdom of Jesus, who said: “Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need.” (Matthew 5:3) Sadly, however, many put the material before the spiritual, lack inner peace and contentment, and never know why.

Some respected scientists know why: The present system of things is wrong.

René Dubos states: “Scientific technology is presently taking modern civilization on a course that will be suicidal if it is not reversed in time. . . . [The affluent nations] act as if the immediate satisfaction of all their whims and urges were the only criteria of behavior . . . At stake, therefore, is not only the rape of nature but the very future of mankind. . . . I doubt that mankind can tolerate our absurd way of life much longer without losing what is best in humanness. Western man will either choose a new society or a new society will abolish him.”

Erich Fromm agrees but feels that “the new society and new Man is possible only if the old motivations of profit, power, and intellect are replaced by new ones: being, sharing, understanding.” He referred to reports commissioned by the Club of Rome stating that only by drastic economic and technological changes could mankind “avoid major and ultimately global catastrophe.” Fromm said that these changes could come only if first “a fundamental change occurs in contemporary Man’s character structure. . . . For the first time in history the physical survival of the human race depends on a radical change of the human heart.” Albert Schweitzer agreed that the problems “are in the last resort only to be solved by an inner change of character.”

‘A fundamental change in man’s character? A change of heart?’ Yes! And the Bible pointed that out 19 centuries ago. “Quit being fashioned after this system of things,” it said, “but be transformed by making your mind over.” Again, “Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality, which through accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of the One who created it.”​—Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:9, 10.

“According to the image of the One who created it?” Yes! The image of Jehovah God, in whose likeness man was created! (Genesis 1:27, 28) That is the image that man should try to project. That is the way he was made. That is what determines his spiritual needs. And meeting those needs is what it takes to make man happy!

Jehovah is a God of purpose, and he works to accomplish his purpose. Man in his image also needs to do work that has a meaningful purpose. That presents a problem. “Under modern industrial conditions,” psychiatrist Smiley Blanton says, “more and more people find that they . . . are but tiny cogs, as a rule, in a huge machine directed by remote corporate management. Work has become specialized and fragmented to the point where it carries little intrinsic significance, and the worker himself is turned into an anonymous treadle for someone else to step upon.”

Under this system most work produces stress and lacks meaning. Yet we have a desperate need for life to have meaning. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote: “The striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man. . . . There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.”

But how can we feel that our life is meaningful? In the vastness of the universe our earth is a speck. Each of us is only one of over four billion on this speck. Each is little more than an amoeba. How can we be of any consequence? Even the Bible says that man is like the grass that withers, the flower that fades, the shadow that passes, the mist that appears but soon disappears. (Psalm 103:15, 16; 144:4; James 4:14) Unless . . . unless we can connect up with the great powerful One that created the universe. Unless that powerful One who also created us has a purpose in mind for us. Only then can our life be really meaningful and last longer than the grass, the flower, the shadow, the mist.

And that is exactly the case. Man was created by God, given a work of caring for the earth and its plants and animals. A very meaningful work​—which mankind has failed miserably to perform. Not only failing to do it but actually ruining the earth instead. (Genesis 1:28; 2:15; Revelation 11:18) In so doing he has robbed his life of the only lasting meaning available to it.

People have a need for God, an inner urge that pressures them “to seek God, if they might grope for him and really find him, although, in fact, he is not far off from each one of us.” (Acts 17:27) This Grand Creator is reflected in the heavens and in the earth around us. His invisible qualities​—power, wisdom, Godship—​are to be seen in the things he has made. Inexcusably, irrationally, many teach that the earth and life on it just evolved by blind chance. In so doing they deny the guiding principles and values man so much needs. They blindly lead their blind followers away from their only chance for a deep, contented happiness.​—Romans 1:20; Matthew 15:14.

Nevertheless, all mankind, even the sophisticated intellectuals, grope for a god, and many times they find any god but the true Almighty One. Many psychiatrists recognize man’s inborn need to worship a higher power. Rollo May said that through belief in God “the individual will have gained a feeling of his own minuteness and insignificance in the face of the greatness of the universe and God’s purposes therein. . . . He will recognize that there are purposes which swing in arcs much greater than his little orb, and he will aim to put himself in harmony with them.”

C. G. Jung said: “The individual who is not anchored in God can offer no resistance on his own resources to the physical and moral blandishments of the world. . . . Religion . . . is an instinctive attitude peculiar to man, and its manifestations can be followed all through human history. . . . [The] idea of an all-powerful divine being is present everywhere, if not consciously recognized, then unconsciously accepted . . . Therefore I consider it wiser to recognize the idea of God consciously; otherwise something else becomes god, as a rule something quite inappropriate and stupid.”

All human history proclaims beyond any doubt that man has an inborn urge to worship. From the most primitive tribes to the most cultured societies, man has set up gods​—many times stupidly. Stones, trees, a mountain, animals, human leaders, money, their belly, even Satan the Devil (which is what Satan wanted Jesus to do). The unscientific philosophy of evolution has become a modern-day religion for millions​—a religion based solely on “the god of Good Luck.” Also, many who claim to worship the true God give only lip service and only put on ‘a form of godliness.’ (Isaiah 65:11; 2 Timothy 3:5; Philippians 3:19; Colossians 3:5; Matthew 4:9; 7:21) Until there is a proper fulfillment of this need by worshiping the only true God, Jehovah, along with all the other needs, there will be no deep-rooted contentment or lasting happiness for man. This is a crucial part of what it takes to make us happy.

Jehovah is a God of love. His Son Jesus gave his life because of his love for us. The two greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love gives discipline that trains us for righteousness. Love is a perfect bond of union among us. Love is the hallmark of Jesus’ disciples. It is this kind of love, this benevolent agape love, that never fails.​—1 John 4:8; John 15:13; Matthew 22:36-40; 1 Peter 4:8; Hebrews 12:6, 11; Colossians 3:14; John 13:35.

It is the godly love that the apostle Paul so beautifully describes at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Love is long-suffering and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

It is this godly quality of love that we must reflect. It is a spiritual need that must be filled if we are to be happy. “The principle underlying capitalistic society and the principle of love are incompatible,” Fromm said, and he added: “Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence . . . , the ultimate and real need in every human being.” It is a vital need, according to Smiley Blanton: “Without love, we lose the will to live. . . . A certain amount of self-love is a normal characteristic of every healthy person. To have a proper regard for oneself is indispensable for all work and achievement. If we are too harsh and self-critical of our conduct, our sense of guilt may weaken the will to live and, in extreme cases, bring on actual self-destruction.”

Long before this, Jesus indicated love for self as well as love for others when he said: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Love, like a muscle, is strengthened by use. On the other hand, love, like faith, is dead without works. Sow love to reap it. Love is giving. “Practice giving, and people will give to you.” However, the one who loves and gives does not do so to receive something back. Giving is its own reward. As Jesus said, “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” You give, you get, but you do not give to get.​—Matthew 22:39; Luke 6:38; Acts 20:35; James 2:26.

Akin to giving is sharing, not material things, but ideas, experiences, joys, yearnings, innermost feelings, even sorrows. One psychiatrist said: “One of the deepest forms of human happiness: shared enjoyment.” Have you ever been alone as you gazed in amazement at a spectacular sunset and wished that a loved one were there to share it with you? Or have you had exciting good news but no one to tell it to? Or stared in awe at a stormy ocean with mighty waves crashing onto a rocky coast and shooting high up into the air, and ached because no companion was with you to share in the thrilling sight? Or even a scene of poignant sadness that moved you deeply, but you’ll never be able to convey it fully to another? We yearn to communicate feelings, as the apostle Paul said: “Rejoice with people who rejoice; weep with people who weep.”​—Romans 12:15.

That sounds simple. It is also true. Psychiatrist James Fisher said: “Great thinkers . . . have warned of the perils of pursuing earthly treasures, and have earnestly recommended the simple life.” Genuine pleasures are found in the simple things and the magnificent things God has made: the black velvet dome from which myriads of stars twinkle and shine, the warmth of the sun, the coolness of breezes. The fragrance of flowers, the song of birds, the grace of animals. The rolling hills and the towering crags. The rushing rivers and lazy streams, lush meadows and dense forests, the glisten of snow in the sun. The patter of rain on the roof, the chirping of a cricket in the cellar, the croak of a frog in the pond, and the splash of a fish that sends ripples circling out under the moonlight.

Even more pleasure is found in companionable people, for man was made a social creature, with a need to belong. A kind thought, a sympathetic touch, a soft gesture, a warm smile, a loving act, the laughter of a child at play, the gurglings of a baby in its crib, the dignity and wisdom of an old person rich in life’s experiences​—these are things that satisfy.

It is what we are that counts, not what we appear to be. It is the love we have, not the social position we gain. It is what we can give, not what we can get. It is the treasure in heaven we have, not the hoard of gold on earth. It is contentment with little rather than anxiety with much that matters. The rich young ruler had things, the Pharisees appeared holy, but the rich young ruler was not happy and the Pharisees were not holy. Having God’s thoughts to make us wise, using this wisdom to channel our power, following his principles to ensure justice, copying him in the showing of love​—all of this is needed to fill the hungers he created within us.

And all of this is what it takes to make us happy.

[Blurb on page 5]

Survival “depends on a radical change of the human heart”

[Blurb on page 7]

“The striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man”

[Blurb on page 9]

“Without love, we lose the will to live”

[Box on page 10]

Happiness Through Divine Wisdom

“Happy is anyone acting with consideration toward the lowly one.”​—Psalm 41:1

“Happy are those observing justice, doing righteousness all the time.”​—Psalm 106:3

“Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah!”​—Psalm 144:15

“Happy is the man that has found wisdom, and the man that gets discernment, for having it as gain is better than having silver as gain and having it as produce than gold itself.”​—Proverbs 3:13, 14

“Happy is he who is showing favor to the afflicted ones.”​—Proverbs 14:21

“Happy is he that is trusting in Jehovah.”​—Proverbs 16:20

“Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need.”​—Matthew 5:3

Happiness comes from the same one who put the need in us in the first place, our Creator Jehovah God

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Man was created by God, given a work of caring for the earth and its plants and animals

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Genuine pleasures are found in the simple things

Windmills Make a Comeback

Wind turbines are popping up in California, in the isolated steppes of the Soviet Union, and even all the way down to the South Pole. So says Weerberichten (Weather Reports), a Dutch bimonthly bulletin. The reason? Wind is an efficient energy source, and there is plenty of it.

The Tehachapi Valley Wind Park, 190 miles (300 km) north of Los Angeles, California, already has 50 turbines operating and will provide a total output of 13.5 megawatts when completed. East of San Francisco, a wind farm with 44 turbines is selling enough power to supply 400 families. Plans are to expand the number of turbines to several hundred and to produce 30 million kilowatt-hours per year​—enough for 4,800 families.

Meanwhile, in Cycloon, near Moscow, 12 different types of wind turbines are being tested for producing electrical and mechanical energy for isolated settlements and arid regions in the Soviet Union. “These systems have the potential to turn the steppe into an oasis,” noted a Radio Moscow commentator.

Four other turbines will end up in really isolated territory​—Antarctica. Now when cold polar winds blow, scientists stationed there should be happy. They will need the electricity generated to run the station and keep comfortable.

Walking Catches Up With Running

“Walking . . . is riding a wave of popularity that draws its strength from a rediscovery of walking’s . . . health-giving qualities.” So states the booklet Walking for Exercise and Pleasure, by the United States President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

An impressive list of physical benefits underlines that statement. Among them: improved oxygen consumption during exertion, lowered resting heart rate, reduced blood pressure, and increased efficiency of heart and lungs. Of course, this is not achieved by sauntering, strolling, or shuffling, the booklet points out, but by walking “brisk enough to make your heart beat faster and cause you to breathe more deeply.”

Surprisingly, brisk walking burns nearly as many calories as does running. When 24 healthy male students were tested on energy expenditure while walking, jogging, and running at varying speeds, the test established that “jogging a mile in 8 1/2 minutes burns only 26 calories more than walking a mile in 12 minutes.” Walking 5 miles per hour used up 124 calories per mile, while running 9 miles per hour burned only 40 calories more.

Other pluses for walking include the following: No outlay is needed for special equipment (save for a good pair of shoes), preconditioning is unnecessary, and walking is virtually injury free. You may agree with the booklet’s slogan: “Walking: The Slower, Surer Way to Fitness.”

Homeless Street People​—Their Cruel Plight an Unsolved Problem

FOR a brief moment the bustling streets are deserted. The stores and shops have closed. The last bus filled with the city’s nine-to-five office workers has left. The commuter trains filled with business executives are speeding toward suburbia. Store lights have been dimmed and street lights have come on. The evening’s wind picks up as the temperature plunges on another winter night. Heated apartments are a welcome haven for the city dwellers, while blazing logs in the fireplace spell “home, sweet home” for the suburban commuters. The hot dinners and soft beds that follow are taken for granted.

How different the story on the city’s empty streets! Shadowy human figures begin to appear on hundreds of them. Walking slowly on numb feet, hunched forms bracing against the cold wind, they take their place in store entrances, under bridges, over hot-air grates, and on the sidewalks. In cardboard boxes, scavenged from garbage bins, they bed down for the night. Whatever their age, their background, their physical and mental condition, they have one common denominator that inseparably links them all​—they are homeless. These are the urban nomads, the street people, the bag ladies, the winos. They are the blight of almost every major city in the world. They have become a major urban crisis, a problem without a solution.

In the more affluent cities these unfortunates are as close as many people have come to witnessing poverty. If they have not seen it for themselves, they have heard about it. What youngster working in fast-food restaurants could keep silent after seeing bag ladies filling their plastic bags with stale buns and rancid meat from garbage bins outside their kitchen doors? Or what about the pizza maker who often fills telephone orders for pizzas with things on them no one would want, such as pineapple, and then, when the unclaimed pizzas are thrown out, watches the hungry who phoned in the orders scavenge them from the garbage? Or what waiter in fine urban restaurants could not tell of the desperate hands groping through the establishment’s garbage bins for discarded food?

“Ah, the balance of nature,” wrote George F. Will in Newsweek magazine, “expense accounts encourage diners to order to excess; vanity​—fear of fat—​causes them to leave much uneaten; desperation brings other diners to the remains.”

The plight of the homeless in urban areas becomes the focus of increasing attention when weather forecasts predict freezing and subfreezing temperatures for the nights. The established shelters are far too few. The majority of the homeless are forced to face the elements with inadequate clothing on their backs. “If I could furnish shelter for everyone seeking it on a cold night,” said one welfare worker in Atlanta, Georgia, “I could sleep a lot better that night.” And so they die​—in distressing numbers. The chairman of New York’s Board of Health said that an average of one homeless person a day is now found dead in the streets of that city.

Many of the homeless refuse to take shelter within the municipally provided dormitorylike quarters and flophouses. They fear for their lives at most and being stripped of their earthly possessions at least. “Let me tell you something, man,” said one who spent a few hours in one such shelter. “You never know what the guy next to you is going to pull. You’re much better off in the streets, man.” One Community Service researcher who volunteered to spend a night in a flophouse said: “Conditions are absolutely scurrilous, they’re dangerous as can be. A natural predatory relationship exists between the younger and the older men, and in the brief period of time I was there I all but witnessed any number of robberies.” Violence runs rampant, with knifings, beatings, and muggings out in the open.

Hence, many of the homeless would rather take their chances facing the elements, where they can at least run when threatened. But all too often it is a matter of the survival of the fittest on the streets. Some have been raped many times by winos and drug addicts. Especially are the women victimized by their own kind. The older and weaker women fall prey to younger and stronger ones​—taking what clothes that appeal to them off their backs. “Down here if you can’t hold on to what you’ve got, then you don’t deserve to have it. That’s the rule,” one said.

No one knows for sure how many homeless there are in the world, for census takers cannot find them. In the United States some experts have placed the number as high as two to three million. Whatever it is, it is growing.

Some cities have seen their homeless population increase by 100 percent in the past year. Published reports estimated the number of homeless in the city of New York to be 40,000 in 1984, and the ranks are swelling daily. Newsstand magazines in 1982 placed the number of homeless in Washington, D.C., at 10,000, whereas in 1984 estimates of 20,000 were given. Chicago’s 25,000 homeless are a big increase over last year. England has its homeless problem. So does Sweden. So do most of the major cities of Europe. In poverty-stricken countries, homelessness is an accepted way of life.

The causes of homelessness vary​—loss of a job, breakup of a marriage, an encounter with alcoholism or drug addiction, followed by an eviction from house or apartment, and family and friends refusing to take in the now down-and-out.

Many of the street people lived in flophouse-type buildings, known as single-room occupancies. But with the urban renewal programs undertaken in many cities, these buildings were the first to be destroyed or remodeled and converted into condominiums. Many of their occupants were forced out onto the streets. From 1970 to 1980 a million such rooms were destroyed or converted in the United States alone. For some cities it meant a more than 50-percent loss of single-room occupancies. For New York it was an 87-percent loss.

Consider, now, the street people’s double jeopardy situation: Because they live without addresses, the homeless are unable to receive food stamps and welfare in most states. “Some of these people might qualify, but first they need a fixed address, and they don’t have one,” said a Chicago volunteer worker. Moreover, many are mentally incapable of coping with the red tape of the bureaucracy to seek welfare or governmental subsistence.

There is a sad note that fills all the published data that describes these urban nomads​—it is no longer true that the homeless are primarily age 60 and above. There is a fast-growing population of young, chronically mentally ill persons. They have never been admitted to institutions but have joined the ranks of the homeless. Both boys and girls sell themselves as prostitutes to get the price of a meal, teenage girls sleeping with hotel managers just to have a room for the night. Not all of these, however, are mentally ill. They are the children that nobody wants​—not even their parents. Often they are the abused children. Many know the meaning of the word “incest” all too well. Can you imagine that in New York City alone, half of the estimated 40,000 homeless are under the age 21​—20,000 of them! And these are the ones that the older homeless fear the most, the ones who beat and rob them of their meager goods.

In city after city, where there is a homeless problem, the young ones are there and their numbers are increasing yearly. Are yours there? Would you go looking for them if you did not know where they were, where they were sleeping during the cold nights while you were warm, what they were eating while you had plenty? Or would your child be like the homeless man who said: “I been missing twenty years, and no one come looking for me.”

The solution to the homeless problem is not forthcoming by human administrations. Everything has been tried, everything has failed. The only solution lies in that long-prayed-for government in Jesus’ model prayer, part of which petitions, “Let your kingdom come.” That promised Kingdom will erase poverty, hunger, mental and physical sickness, and death from off the earth forever. Homelessness will be a thing of the past, for in this Kingdom, with Jesus as the administrative head, every person will have his own home, will be able to sit under his own vine and fig tree, and nothing will make him afraid.​—Matthew 6:10; Isaiah 65:21, 22; Micah 4:4.

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‘Affluent diners order to excess; desperation brings other diners to the remains’

[Box on page 15]

Release From Institutions​—A Major Cause of Homelessness

In 1752, at the urging of Benjamin Franklin, the nation’s first hospital to help care for the homeless insane was opened. The following two centuries saw mental institutions opening in every state in the nation. Then in the mid-1940’s the plight of the mentally ill came to the fore. The appalling conditions of overcrowded state mental institutions was publicized.

In 1954 the drug chlorpromazine, developed in France, was allowed to enter the United States for the treatment of the psychotic, calming them and suppressing their delusions and hallucinations. Four years later the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health was established. Through this commission a nationwide system for treating the mentally ill was called for. The proposal had far-reaching goals in mind, namely, to treat the institutionalized within their communities. In other words, those who could be treated and controlled by the new drug and who would not be a danger to others should be released from their places of confinement.

In 1971, in the state of Alabama, a class action suit was instituted on behalf of patients involuntarily confined for mental-treatment purposes. The court ruled that for a patient to be institutionalized the institution must meet certain rigid requirements. The court also ruled that “no later than 15 days after a patient is committed to the hospital, the superintendent of the hospital or his appointed, professionally qualified agent shall examine the committed patient and shall determine whether the patient continues to require hospitalization. . . . If the patient no longer requires hospitalization in accordance with the standards for commitment, or if a treatment plan has not been implemented, he must be released immediately unless he agrees to continue with treatment on a voluntary basis.”

With this legal decision, mental hospitals began releasing inmates in unprecedented numbers. By 1982 mental institutions dwindled in inmate population from 558,922 to 125,200.

Good intentions, however, backfired. The proposed community treatment centers failed to show up. The outpatients ultimately became wards of the city. “Many former patients, because of their condition, did not know how to get to community centers,” said one Washington mental-health administrator. “So after they were released from hospitals, that’s the last anyone saw of them until they showed up in doorways.” “Approximately one-third to one-half of the homeless,” writes Psychology Today of February 1984, “are believed to be mentally ill and on the streets primarily because of a process known as deinstitutionalization.”

In some large cities the percentage rate is higher, up to 60 percent. For example, in an interview with 450 homeless seeking refuge in three New York shelters, it was revealed “that 54 percent of the patients had been in a state hospital and 75 percent had a history of psychiatric hospitalization. A very high percentage (53 percent) of patients were diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia . . . Many of these patients had been discharged into the community to fend for themselves without adequate community services or support systems to assist them in making the adaptation from institutional to community living.”​—Hospital & Community Psychiatry, September 1983.

That journal reported a similar study conducted in London with 123 homeless men. The data compiled showed that 15 percent were diagnosed as schizophrenic, 8 percent suffered from affective disorders, and 29 percent had a history of psychiatric hospitalization.

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‘I’ve been missing for 20 years, and no one has come looking for me’

Young People Ask . . .

How Do I Choose a Career?

“WHEN my 60-day evaluation came up,” explained Emily, a young woman in her 20’s, “my supervisor informed me that she had given me a very high rating . . . that I could count on a career with the company.”

Emily had a decision to make: accept a promotion to a well-paying job and all its advantages​—special training, prestige, material benefits—​or look for part-time work so as to pursue another career that she had been training for. Her decision would have far-reaching effects in her life.

Though Emily was already out of school, her choice of a career had yet to be determined. And if you are in your last few years of high school (known as secondary school in some countries), you are likewise in a decision-making period of your life. ‘Should I continue my education in a university?’ you might be asking yourself. ‘Should I be learning a trade?’

Where to Find Good Advice

A proverb says: “The one listening to counsel is wise.” (Proverbs 12:15) Some schools provide counselors for students to help them choose a career or help them set goals. If your school has such a program, you may find that the advice given very often encourages you to take full advantage of your required school years and to complete them. Why? Because education is essential to finding a place in the working world.a The Royal Bank of Canada, in its Monthly Letter, explained it this way: The one “who does not make the best of all the learning opportunities of school years will be at a disadvantage in competition with others in later life.”

Cutting short your education in high school by dropping out may handicap your success in getting a job. One report frankly revealed that “dropouts are more disadvantaged today than they were 30 years ago . . . While the dropout rate is increasing, so is the education level of the work force as a whole, making the competition for jobs even more difficult for the dropouts.”

Well-meaning counselors, however, may feel that higher education is a must in this high-tech society. However, the Bible warns, ‘Do not put faith in every word.’ (Proverbs 14:15) Indeed, a man once said: “I have no technical and no university education, and have just had to pick up a few things as I went along.” Who was this? Statesman and author Sir Winston Churchill! Many youths have likewise discovered that a university education is not the only alternative. Eighteen-year-old Jane observed: “Many teens jump on the college bandwagon simply because they think it’s ‘the thing to do.’ . . . If only they would stop to consider the many other choices available to them and dare to be different!”

No wonder, then, that the book Adolescence by Eastwood Atwater observes: “More and more young people are thinking twice about attending college.” For one thing, a close look at the job market reveals that so-called higher education is not necessarily the best avenue to a job. Many, even with university degrees, are having problems finding work and are often considered overqualified for well-paying jobs. “Today four out of five jobs do not require higher education and, furthermore, a degree may be more of a handicap than a help,” reported the San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle. The fact is that in many fields, colleges are simply turning out more graduates than there are jobs.

So when looking for advice, it’s best to go to those who really have your best interests at heart and who have valuable experience in the working world. Likely your parents can be of great help in this regard. (Proverbs 23:22) They know your capabilities. And if they are God-fearing, they would have a different perspective on careers than school guidance counselors would. A calm and frank discussion with them may provide you with just the direction you need to find a successful career.

Young people among Jehovah’s Witnesses also have the advantage of getting advice from those with experience in the congregation they are associated with. Have you tapped this source of guidance?

Alternatives to University

After consulting their parents, many young people have decided against long-term education because of the uncertainty of the future. “The time left is reduced,” says the Bible. (1 Corinthians 7:29) And isn’t it true that specialized training in a certain field may be obsolete within just a few years due to the fast pace of technology? So consider your future carefully. Stephanie, a teenager, decided to take courses in high school that would help her to develop skills and that would be useful in finding a job. As she says: “That way the time spent in high school won’t be a waste of time.” When asked if her high school courses really prepared her for making a living, a youth named Alice replied: “I was able to learn practical skills and get a job.” What skills? “Accounting and secretarial,” says Alice.

Have you examined the courses your school offers? Is training in vocational skills offered? Or is there a high school near your home that will provide practical training in a skill that you feel would be appropriate for you? For example, many schools offer training in auto mechanics, computer programming, plumbing, and so forth.

‘But who wants to be a carpenter or a plumber?’ ask some youths. As a youth, Jesus was taught carpentry. Although it was not to be his career, he learned the trade so well that he became known as “the carpenter.” (Mark 6:3) Solomon also saw the benefit of becoming skillful at a trade: “Have you beheld a man skillful in his work? Before kings is where he will station himself; he will not station himself before commonplace men.” (Proverbs 22:29) Today, not enough people place value on the trades. As a result, the demand for these skills is increasing! Paul McCracken, a professor of the Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Michigan, made this comment: “I would, at the proper time, put much more emphasis on vocational training for such jobs as auto mechanics. Assuming the economy will continue to expand, a lot of those kinds of jobs​—and they’re good jobs—​are going to open up.” Would a vocational skill be just what you need to provide for your present and future needs?

Being Realistic About the Future

A Christian’s view of the future should also affect his choice of career. With ‘the world passing away,’ a career based upon worldly ambitions is most unrealistic. (1 John 2:17) Bible prophecy indicates how short-lived such a career would be.​—Luke 21:29-35.

For this reason, many young people among Jehovah’s Witnesses are choosing a career in full-time Bible education​—a volunteer work of helping people to understand the Bible. ‘But,’ you may ask, ‘how can somebody make a living that way?’ In order to support themselves financially, many have first received practical training in a trade. The apostle Paul did this. (Acts 18:3) And his advice, based on personal experience, was: ‘Do hard work, doing with your hands what is good work.’​—Ephesians 4:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:11.

Choosing a successful career is therefore a result of getting advice from the right people, getting trained in courses that will help you reach your goals, and being realistic about your future. Interestingly, Emily, mentioned at the outset, at first accepted the prestigious job as an executive secretary. However, she then realized that she could not succeed at two opposing careers. (Compare Luke 16:13.) So she decided in favor of a full-time career of helping people in Bible education. This meant getting a part-time job to support herself. Her feelings about giving up a lucrative job for her chosen career? “I am very happy to say that I was able to attain my goal of the full-time ministry,” says Emily. “I have developed a real love for this work.”

With careful planning and prayerful thought, you can likewise choose a career that you will be happy with​—a successful career with a future!

[Footnotes]

[Blurb on page 16]

“Today four out of five jobs do not require higher education and, furthermore, a degree may be more of a handicap than a help.”​—San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

[Picture on page 17]

Many find that learning a trade is a practical way to prepare for future employment

A Peaceful Mind Makes a Healthier Body

Does the mind affect the body? Two Swedish film producers believe so. They are preparing a documentary on psychosomatic illness to be aired in Scandinavia. To prove their point in regard to heart disease, they focused on the tiny borough of Roseto, nestled along the foot of a Pennsylvania mountain range.

“My impression is that people who live in Roseto are confident and very satisfied people,” said one of the producers, according to the Express of Easton, Pennsylvania. “Most of them are happy, compared to normal people of today. They’re more healthy mentally. They’re not so disturbed by modern society.”

Back in the early 1960’s, Dr. Stewart Wolf did a study on the life-style and habits of the Rosetans. He found that “Rosetans back then had a much lower chance of getting heart attacks and other stress-related health problems.” Wolf’s “research team attributed that to traditional, close-knit, family-based life style.”

Some 20 years later, the two Swedish producers reached a similar conclusion. “We have learned that as long as the small community lived the old Italian way​—living together and taking care of itself”—​their health fared well. “But when they broke away from tradition in the beginning of the ’60s and in the ’70s, they got unhealthier.”

Medical researchers of today are just echoing the wisdom of a centuries-old Bible proverb: “Peace of mind makes the body healthy.”​—Proverbs 14:30, Today’s English Version.

“The Ultimate Machine”

“A machine that runs on a wide variety of fuels, emits only recyclable or biodegradable materials, accepts a wide range of informational inputs, performs amazing feats of data processing, and produces a wide variety of output functions may just be the ultimate machine,” writes Compressed Air Magazine. Attributing the statement to George Piotrowski of the University of Florida, it continues: “This machine is the human body.”

The suggestion given by Piotrowski is that “engineers apply the biological principles and devices found in the human body to their design strategies.” Lessons in weight-bearing design can be learned from the human body, which is “built up of optimally designed links made of a fatigue-resistant composite material.” All parts​—bones, muscles, tendons, and cartilage—​work together to strengthen the whole.

Bearing designers can learn from human joints, which normally show no wear, yet can sustain a load that is three to ten times the body weight. Very little energy is lost to friction, which in some joints is less than that found when using Teflon. The “hollow” tube of human bone is also a splendid example of weight-bearing design. The ends of longer bones in the body are made of bone that is spongy and more resilient, thus resisting impact injuries. And the stress that would normally occur when fastening two dissimilar parts is offset in the body by the gradual change from bone to tendons wherever they are attached.

Alive in the City of Death

An on-the-scene report by a Watchtower minister in Bhopal

BHOPAL​—until recently perhaps you had never heard of this city of some 800,000 people in central India. Built on three hills, with two large lakes that almost join in the city’s center, and having delightful parks and tree-lined roads, Bhopal is very beautiful. But then, last December 3, poisonous gas leaked from the city’s Union Carbide chemical plant, causing the worst industrial accident in history. Thus Bhopal became, literally overnight, the city of death.

My wife Mary and I, along with our teenage son Carl, live right alongside the Union Carbide plant. Only a small field, about 150 meters (490 ft) across, separates our home from the factory grounds. So why are we alive and well when thousands of others, most of whom lived farther from the plant, either were killed or suffered horrible injuries?

The Way the Wind Blew

When we retired Sunday evening, December 2, a cool breeze rustled the trees on Bhopal’s three hills, and the light of an almost full moon shimmered on its lakes. During the night, we were awakened by the Union Carbide plant’s sirens. But we paid them no attention and, after a while, were able to get back to sleep. Many times before, we had heard the factory sirens, evidently to call in technicians for some minor emergency or to indicate a safety drill. In fact, coming home on a winter night, we could often smell pesticides.

This night, however, there was no unusual smell, nothing to suggest the nightmare that had started. It was a catastrophe of such dimensions that it would take the lives of more than 2,500 people and affect one fourth of the city’s population. Thousands would be left partially or totally blind, or with injured lungs and brain damage. Some 3,000 cattle and innumerable small animals would be killed. It was a horror that would leave behind fear​—fear of remaining pollution and fear of delayed effects of gas poisoning and deadly diseases.

What caused this calamity? According to the managing director of the plant, MIC (methyl isocyanate) gas leaked out when a valve on a storage tank broke under rising pressure. Some scientists believe that phosgene gas, used in gas attacks during World War I, also leaked.

MIC resembles nerve gas in its effects on humans. It can kill instantly and is also lethal when absorbed through the skin. Sometime after midnight, for about 40 minutes, tons of MIC poured into the atmosphere before the leak could be stopped. But the wind carried it away from the houses in our area. If it hadn’t, we probably would have been found dead in bed and would have been buried in a mass grave, with only a photograph for later identification.

A Night of Terror

As the gas emerged, a huge white cloud formed in the clear night sky. The chill of winter brought it down to earth, and it crept into the homes, into the cattle pens, through the main city bus station and down into the railway station. Spreading out, it began to turn toward the main vegetable market and up to the city hospital.

Another arm of the gas monster headed toward the lower lake and on into the newer part of the city. And as it went it killed. Awakened from sleep with the gas burning their eyes and closing their throats, thousands ran into the streets. Of those who inhaled the gas close to the plant, almost all died very quickly. Others stumbled on, blinded and vomiting, only to fall dead in the road.

Suddenly the entire city was on the move and shouts of “bhago, bhago” (meaning, “run, run”) filled the air. Families were separated as crowds carried them along. In time police vans with loudspeakers began rousing people and evacuating the affected areas as quickly as possible. All night some petrol pumps provided free fuel for vehicles trying to get out of the city. On foot, by scooter, moped, auto-ricksha, car, bus, and truck thousands poured out of the city. Children were trampled to death by the fleeing crowds. Some were crushed under vehicles as they staggered on half blinded. Others ran aimlessly, unintentionally following the path of the gas, and they died or were severely injured.

Among those who gave more thought to their flight was a fellow Christian, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Brother Paulose awoke about 2:30 a.m. to the sound of the sirens and to an acrid smell rather like ammonia. Knowing that the gas could come only from the Union Carbide plant, he first tested the direction of the wind and then, without even stopping to collect warm clothes, hurried his family away from the path of the gas. They battled their way through a huge, flowing mass of people and fled to the top of a hill outside the city where the fresh, clean air from the lake soothed them. Except for slight eye irritation and chest pain, they suffered no ill effects.

As the night wore on, government machinery went into action. Wearing gas masks, officials entered the hardest hit area on the other side of the plant from where we live. Among the first into this area were the mayor of Bhopal, Dr. Bisarya, and his son Robin. Describing the scene, only about 200 meters (650 ft) from our home, Robin said, “All you could see were bodies, bodies of people and animals.”

Doctors from all over the city were called, and they rushed to help. The vast Hamidia Hospital was soon packed with frantic people seeking relief. In a short time the wards were overflowing and tents were set up on the hospital grounds. First-aid posts sprang up all over the city.

Hundreds fled to nearby towns only to die en route or on arrival. After receiving medical treatment, one man felt better. On reaching home, he lit a cigarette, inhaled, and died on the spot. A young man took the bodies of his father and mother to be disposed of by burning, returned home, and fell down dead. One young girl we met had lost nine members of her family.

Our Monday of Horror

Yet for us the horror of it all didn’t occur until after we awoke at our regular time, 4:50 a.m., and began to prepare for the day’s activities. Surrounded by death and suffering, we had slept peacefully through it all!

After getting our son Carl off to his part-time secular work at the local newspaper office, my wife and I planned to share in our regular preaching activity. Both of us, as well as our son, are full-time ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses. But wherever we went this Monday morning, there were dead bodies of people and animals. A person would be walking on the road just ahead of us and suddenly collapse, dead.

As we now toured the city, there were hardly any vehicles on the road. All shops were closed. The market was closed. On entering the bus station, we found the floor covered with vomit and excreta. At the railway station, many of the staff on duty had died on the spot.

Station superintendent, Harish Dhurve, who had inhaled the gas, saw his staff collapsing. He succeeded in contacting the next station and warned them to stop all trains from entering Bhopal. He was found dead at his desk. Some passengers who had come for a train due to leave at 1:30 a.m. never left Bhopal alive. An engineer who brought a train into the city before the warning was given died on arrival.

Returning home Monday noon, we ran into crowds of people blocking our way and calling out that more gas had leaked and for all to run the other way. This caused panic and proved to be a false rumour. We saw municipal trucks with bodies piled one on top of the other. With each passing hour the death toll mounted​—269, 566, 1,217, and eventually more than 2,500. A newspaper headline on December 5 claimed, “One death every minute.”

Day and night, columns of smoke rose into the sky from the burning of the bodies. Open spaces were hastily converted to serve for the burning of these bodies, even a hundred at a time. Animals were carted outside the city and thrown into deep fissures and covered over. A few looted deserted homes, but most did all they could to help the suffering. We gladly joined with our neighbours in providing money and preparing food for the sick.

From all over the country, doctors and scientists poured into the city to help. And medical experts with experience in treating eye and chest problems came from other countries. Sadly, women who were apparently not too badly affected themselves delivered stillborn babies. Others arrived at the hospital in extreme pain and aborted dead fetuses.

Interestingly, on Saturday, just two days before, my wife had taken the latest copy of Awake! to Dr. A. M. Shali, a regular reader. “Very busy?” my wife asked the doctor. “This is our quiet time,” was her reply. “With the heat and the rain over, and the good winter weather, this is the healthy season,” she added. “So there is less work for doctors.”

But as we passed Dr. Shali’s dispensary Monday morning the queue of people pushing one another to get treatment stretched way down the road and was four and five deep. Heads were bowed to protect burning eyes from the sun. Dr. Shali later told us that she had been called out early in the morning and that she and her husband along with some helpers had worked nonstop all day Monday and through the night treating the victims free of charge. She stated that when proper treatment was promptly given, eyesight could be saved. If neglected, however, the eyes would develop ulcerated corneas, and eyesight could be lost. “When you see this suffering,” she said, “how can men think of starting a nuclear war?”

Checking on Fellow Witnesses

Of great concern to us were our Christian brothers and sisters in Bhopal, all of whom live in the old part of the city well within the danger zone. What a relief to find on visiting them that all 12 were alive and uninjured!

We really appreciated our Christian brotherhood when Witnesses from other places began to visit to see how we were faring. The first to arrive was Brother Barrett, himself a heart patient. He had come 337 kilometers (209 mi) overnight by train. We were so glad to see him that tears filled our eyes. Telegrams and letters also began to come in, and this, too, encouraged us greatly.

Hope in the Face of Sorrow

Daily, thousands of people poured into the city to search for loved ones. Government agencies worked night and day to dispose of bodies to prevent the outbreak of disease. The chief minister of the state, Arjun Singh, declared that Union Carbide would never reopen in the city. But it will be long before Bhopal forgets its night of death.

No compensation to survivors will bring the dead back to life or give sight back to the blind. Yet there is One who can do all those things, Jehovah God. His Witnesses in Bhopal, grateful to be alive, are glad to visit their neighbours with the comforting good news that soon such man-made tragedies will never again occur.

[Picture on page 20]

Carrying a loved one off for cremation

[Credit Line]

UPI/​BETTMANN ARCHIVE

[Picture on page 22]

Leading away two whose eyes were damaged

[Credit Line]

UPI/​BETTMANN ARCHIVE

When Money Talks

DO YOU know me? You should, for I am the most sought-after commodity on the face of the earth. I can be recognized in most any part of the world, no matter what the language. Few in any land would think of going anywhere without me. Wars and the length of them are often predicated on the abundance and the availability of me.

Children are snatched away from parents for the ransom I will pay. I am taken at gunpoint or freely handed over to men making false promises. Some women marry because of me, others divorce because of me. I can split families asunder and bring on a legion of woes to those who have love for me. Once I saw a man betray the best friend he could ever have for 30 pieces of me.

It is probable that people have done more injury and lasting harm to one another in the name of me than for any other reason. Love of me is truly “a root of all sorts of injurious things.”​—1 Timothy 6:10.

My name is Money! The American writer, Washington Irving, once described me as “the almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land.” But in your land I may be called the peso, the pound, the franc, or the forint. Whatever I may be called, there is that mad and almost obscene quest for me.

I am different things to different people. I am bribe money, hush money, and kickback money. I am stolen money, blood money, and alimony. I am drug money, drinking money, and tobacco money. These are but a few uses by some that can result in a heavy toll to life and limb. To others, I am the necessary but ever-elusive day-to-day living-expense money​—some accuse me of having wings by which I fly away. Those who have undying love for me titillate themselves with glowing visions of wealth and happiness. But alas, even after some have amassed a great store of me they find, sadly, that I have not brought the real happiness they had imagined, so the suicide rate among them is staggering. Reams have been written to show that I am not the panacea that people have expected me to be.

I am not what I used to be. Physically my looks may be changed. Already in the United States of America, the Treasury Department is toying with the idea of making cosmetic changes in my appearance, such as printing me on different colors of paper to combat counterfeiting. With the latest technology in printing, I can now be copied so expertly that even the trained eye cannot tell me and my look-alike apart without difficulty. Whatever the color, however, I will not be any easier to come by than the old me.

But the real dramatic changes that you have seen have to do with my value. It has to do with deflation and inflation. When I am the one inflated, my value is deflated. What has inflated is not only your worries and concerns but the cost of the items you are swapping me for. So, what some years ago you could buy with one or a few of me, today takes many of me.

A good many of you will not remember as far back as the year 1908, but to me it seems as though it were yesterday. In your fantasy you will have to comparison shop. Do you like rice? In that year (in U.S. money) ten pounds would cost you 65 cents. A five-pound canister of coffee could be purchased for a mere 95 cents. Do you enjoy a breakfast of pancakes and syrup? Imagine how far a five-gallon can of syrup would go​—all at the amazing low price of $1.89. Are you among those whose palate is pleased with smoked herring? Then your purse would have been equally as pleased to part with only 87 cents for a five-pound pail, or 69 cents for six cans of salmon. Six cans of soup​—you could have your choice of various kinds, including turtle soup, for only 45 cents; or sugar corns, six cans for 41 cents; or six large cans of tomatoes for 60 cents. Can you imagine a pound-and-a-half can of salted peanuts for a mere 21 cents? This is to mention a few.

Perhaps milady is in the mood for boudoir furniture. Perhaps something in a brass bed? How does $16.45 sound to your budget? If you are not into brass this year, how about this handsome three-piece suite​—four drawer, mirrored dresser, matching washstand, and solid oak bed, all for the low, low price of $14.95? A mere pittance of today’s prices. Do you, or any member of your family, play the piano? Then here is a beautifully carved mahogany or French burled walnut model that you can have for just $68.00. Ah, yes, all of this and much, much more is what I would have bought in the year 1908.

By the year 1930, however, drastic changes could be seen in my purchasing power. My value had eroded to exactly half of what it was in 1908. As a one-dollar bill, I was now worth 50 cents. The inflation that concerned me and the deflation of my value that worried you was by now on an unstoppable course. By the year 1960, I had deflated to 28 cents. By 1982, nine cents. And by the year 2000, I am expected to shrivel to a mere four pennies.

As this was happening in America, Germany was not without its money problems. Before World War I, the value of the German mark was flying high. But by the year 1923, I, as a German mark, had so deflated in value that a wheelbarrow full of me would not even buy a newspaper.11 People were cashing in 20-year paid-up insurance policies for a single loaf of bread. What one American dollar would buy, it took a trillion of my German counterparts. When the one-thousand-billion-mark note came out to make it more convenient for the spender, it was so worthless that few bothered to wait for their change. It finally took a whole new monetary system to bring the nation to some kind of stability.

The world over, people put their trust in me. To gain me, they thought, would be the cure-all for their problems. In the end I proved to be nothing of the kind. I am but a piece of paper or a few metal coins. I am only worth what I can buy. When my buying power is gone, then I am worthless. I am reminded of what a wise king, Solomon by name, once said: “Your money can be gone in a flash, as if it had grown wings and flown away like an eagle.” (Proverbs 23:5, Today’s English Version) How ironic it is that the eagle, with wings outstretched ready for flight, is printed on me, the American dollar. Could it be saying, in its own mute way, ‘Beware, you who chase after me! I will fly away.’

Since I am the elusive one, a commodity for many hard to come by, it would seem that great care should be taken as to how I am spent. If you are budget-minded as you push your cart through the aisles of the supermarket but disappointed when you compare your sales receipt with your budget, then take heart. A food bill is not the same as a supermarket bill. How many nonedibles did you buy​—paper supplies, soaps and detergents, toilet and beauty aids, to mention a few?

Since I have spent a lifetime in the hands and pockets of all kinds of shoppers, the wise and the foolish, the budget-minded experts and the laymen, I have gleaned tips aplenty for saving me. A few might help you. Here is what the experts say.

Make out a list of what you need to buy before shopping and stick to this list. Never shop for food when you are hungry. Your stomach can prove to be bigger than your pocketbook. Do not take your children shopping with you, unless you are prepared to cope with the scene that might develop at the checkout counter when you refuse to add those items your children put in the cart when you were not looking. And it may be better not to take along your husband​—in most cases husbands are notorious impulse buyers.

Watch the papers and shop for sale items. Shop with coupons for additional savings. Some stores feature double-coupon day where the face discount value is doubled.

And don’t shop too often. Statistics, experts say, indicate that if you shop only once or twice a week you will probably spend less. Don’t stay too long. Supermarket surveys have indicated that for every minute you stay over 30, you spend 50 cents extra.

Buy the right size, says another expert. The largest cans of peas or beans, tomatoes or fruit, and other items, in most cases are more economical than smaller ones. The same is true with milk by the gallon as opposed to the quart. But be sure your family is large enough to use up the economy size.

Since transportation burns up a lot of me, cut down on your trips to the store and other places. Plan ahead and learn to consolidate your short car jaunts. Driving to different stores to chase down bargains may save pennies while guzzling gasoline dollars.

It is obvious to all, then, that I am in and out of your pockets like a flash. Yet, I am a necessary item in your life. I can bring you some temporary measure of happiness if you will see me for what I am really worth. But if you overestimate my value and make me your chief goal in life, I can be calamitous!

[Picture on page 25]

Some say that I simply fly away!

[Picture on page 26]

A wheelbarrow full of me would not even buy a newspaper

[Picture on page 27]

If you make me your chief goal in life, I can be calamitous!

From Our Readers

Winning Parents’ Respect

I want to thank you so much for the article “Young People Ask . . . How Can I Win My Parents’ Respect?” (October 22, 1984) I really enjoyed the part which says: ‘If you want your parents’ respect, treat them with respect.’ I have greatly benefited from this article.

J. W., Wisconsin

Teenage Marriages

Thank you so much for your articles “Teenage Marriage​—Pleasure or Pain?” and “How Wise Is a Teenage Marriage?” (September 22, 1983) I must confess that the experiences in both articles point to my situation today. If these articles had been published before my decision on marriage, I could for sure have arrived at a wise decision. The scar and pain are very much with me. Please continue to publish articles like these for the benefit of those who might read them and adjust their viewpoint before getting into marriage.

E. B., Nigeria

Clothing Fashions

I want to thank you for the articles “Fig Leaves, Fashions and Figures” and “I Have Nothing to Wear!” (November 22, 1984; December 8, 1984) Now I realize how much I have to wear, thanks to the articles. They have helped me to become better organized.

L. F., California

I just read the article “Fig Leaves, Fashions and Figures.” I work as an Image/​Color Consultant, and this information was so similar to what I use in working with my clients in color analysis and wardrobe coordination.

C. J., Texas

I wish to express appreciation for the articles “Fig Leaves, Fashions and Figures” and “I Have Nothing to Wear.” These were really class articles, showing that the ‘Best Dressed Woman’ has it together both “inside” and “outside.” And she doesn’t have to compromise Christian principles to do it. Further, I appreciated that the information can also apply to men in this area of dress and Christian personality.

R. E., Illinois

I found your article “Fig Leaves, Fashions and Figures” very informative, but I must also admit feeling a bit excluded from it. Because of a physical disability, I walk with the aid of a leg brace and a cane. I feel very self-conscious about this, and so I hide the brace as much as possible by wearing long pants all the time. This causes me to feel different from other women, especially in situations where they generally wear skirts or dresses. Please give me some tips on fashion for women who feel that they must wear slacks.

M. S., California

There can be circumstances, such as those mentioned, where slacks might well be the more appropriate and modest type of dress. If so, the fashion tip would be to select a style of pantsuit that is attractive, fits properly, and meets the requirement of ‘well-arranged dress with soundness of mind.’ (1 Timothy 2:9) Then wear such with the dignity suitable for the occasion.​—ED.

Watching the World

Credit Card Fraud

● Credit card crime is a hundred-million-dollar-a-year business in the United States and it is growing fast, reports The Toronto Star of Canada. “Many of the schemes involve well-oiled, convincing telephone pitches” offering microwave ovens, fishing boats, TVs, cruises, and so forth, at great discounts, says the report. “That’s the bait. The hook is getting the credit card number.” Then a counterfeit card is made with the number. Or criminals who pose as legitimate merchants will use the ill-gotten number on phony copies of credit card receipts, which they submit to a bank in return for cash. By the time the bank discovers the scam, the “merchant” has left town. Here is advice for card holders: Don’t give out your credit card number over the phone unless you are dealing with a reputable business. Keep the customer receipt and carbon papers from credit card triplicate forms and destroy the carbons when you get home. Finally, check your monthly credit card statements carefully for any fraudulent charges.

Cash-Copying Threat

● “Plans are in motion that will change the face of [U.S.] paper money,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Why? Because an upcoming generation of copying machines that can reproduce documents in high-quality color will make the counterfeiting of bills too easy and too tempting, say authorities. The most likely alternative, among those being considered, is reported to be the adding of a second, hard-to-reproduce color to the bills. Another alternative is to put on a bill’s margin a “security thread” that cannot be seen, and hence not copied, unless it is held up to the light. Or perhaps holograms or thin films that shift in form or color as it is viewed. The Treasury Department is expected to announce its choice this year.

Chopsticks Anyone?

● The Chinese have long been known for their habit of eating out of a common bowl with chopsticks. But recently Hu Yaobang, general secretary of the Communist Party, was quoted on Peking radio as saying, “We should prepare more knives and forks, buy more plates and sit around the table to eat Chinese food in the Western style.” Why? “By doing so we can avoid contagious diseases,” he says. According to a report in The New York Times, “figures released recently have shown frightening rates for infectious and contagious diseases, and there has been a spate of articles [in China] about changing eating habits.” But many Chinese object. Said a Chinese restaurant owner in New York, “The knife and fork just doesn’t fit Chinese food. . . . You just don’t get the right mix on a fork.” Said another: “I think the chopstick will last forever.”

Colds From Hands

● “An increasing body of scientific evidence suggests that the hundreds of viruses that cause the common cold are spread chiefly by hand contamination rather than by coughing or sneezing,” says the International Herald Tribune of Paris, France, in reporting the results of recent experiments by two medical teams. Both teams, one from the University of Virginia and the other from the University of Wisconsin, demonstrated that a new type of chemically treated facial tissue was 100 percent effective in stopping the spread of colds under experimental conditions. But, interestingly, the study in Virginia showed that, while the frequent use of regular tissue was also effective, colds could be passed on if sufferers shook hands with healthy individuals. It is believed that the hands of a cold sufferer, contaminated from touching infected nostrils, pass on viruses to the hands of healthy individuals who often get infected by touching their own eyes and nose. To avoid spreading colds, the report recommended a cheap, old-fashioned approach​—“wiping one’s nose frequently with regular facial tissue and keeping one’s hands clean.”

Cancer Preventative

● “People who eat vegetables daily have a lower risk of cancer than those who don’t.” So says the New York Daily News in reporting one of the biggest long-term cancer studies ever done. Headed by Dr. Takeshi Hirayama of the National Cancer Research Institute in Tokyo, Japan, the study analyzed cancer deaths from 1965 to 1981 among some 122,000 men over 40 years of age. The highest cancer death rate​—808 per 100,000 men—​was among those who smoked cigarettes, drank, and ate meat but did not eat vegetables. Among those who shared the same habits but did eat vegetables daily, the death rate was 524 per 100,000. Only 324 deaths per 100,000 men occurred among those who did not smoke, drink, or eat meat but consumed vegetables daily.

Cut Cholesterol

● The average American’s cholesterol level is too high and something must be done about it. That was the conclusion of an expert panel convened by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. The panel noted that a typical middle-aged American has a cholesterol reading of 220 to 260 milligrams per 100 milliliters of blood serum. Citing this level as contributing excessively to heart disease, which accounts for half of American deaths due to disease, it concluded that a desirable level should be less than 180 milligrams for people in their 20’s and less than 200 milligrams for those 30 and older. Among its recommendations for the average American are the following: Eat less red meat, substituting fish and poultry (without its skin). Eat sausage meats and bacon seldom, if at all. Cut down on hard cheese and ice cream, as well as butter, margarine, oil, and other fats. Avoid processed foods that are made with large amounts of saturated fats. Limit consumption of egg yolks to two to four a week. The New York Times called these suggestions “the most far-reaching public health recommendation yet made on cholesterol and heart disease.”

Inconclusive Study

● Alzheimer’s disease is uncurable and afflicts three million North Americans. In its final stages, victims lose their memory, speech, coordination, and control of bodily functions. But recently hopes for a helpful treatment were raised when Neurosurgery magazine published the results of a preliminary study involving four victims of Alzheimer’s disease who received injections of bethanechol chloride into their brain. The results? “Repeated reports [from family members] of decreased confusion, increased initiative, and improvement in activities of daily living” for all four patients, reported the study. A week after it was published, medical centers specializing in the disease were swamped with inquiries. But the doctors admit that the results of their study are inconclusive, perhaps coincidental. “The media have just grabbed on to this thing, and a lot of false hopes have been raised because of it,” said David Roberts, one of the doctors who conducted the study.

Typhoons Missed

● For the first time since 1941, Japan has gone through an entire year without a single typhoon. But as a result, rain-starved reservoirs have dropped well below normal levels, reports the Asahi Evening News. While the Japanese are glad that the lack of typhoons has saved lives and property, Takashi Nitta, head of the planning division for the Japan Meteorological Society, says, “I think in the long run, we’re going to find that not having typhoons is a bad thing.”

Up 15,000 Percent!

● “One of the most dramatic changes in the U.S. Catholic church since Vatican II is scarcely ever heard about,” reports the National Catholic Reporter. “Annulments in this nation are up more than 15,000 per cent in 15 years,” from 338 in 1968 to approximately 52,000 in 1983! Under church law, any Catholic who has been married in a “sacramental” marriage ceremony cannot remarry​—even if he or she has a legal divorce—​without being considered an adulterer. “That’s the church’s bind​—that the [original, church-sanctioned] marriage is indissoluble,” says Catholic attorney Joe Zwack. But if the original marriage can be annulled, that is, declared invalid, then Catholics can remarry in good standing. The church’s increased desire to retain its members is one of the reasons why annulments are now commonly granted. If Catholics cannot get annulments, says Zwack, then “we’ve lost an awful lot of people.”

Symbolic or Not?

● Electronic candles are replacing real ones at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Greektown, Michigan. But not all the parishioners are happy about using them, reports the Detroit Free Press. “Insert donation in slot,” say the instructions located by the collection box. For one dollar, one candle stays lit for 24 hours; two dollars, 48 hours. “Pick up magic wand and place tip inside top of any unlit candle,” continue the instructions. A thin, metal wand switches the electric candles on. The candles actually flicker and look like the real thing from a distance. John Nader, who presides at the church, says, “The symbolism isn’t in the candle itself. It’s in the light that’s there.” But Rose Hartley, a 68-year-old parishioner, refuses to use them, saying, “They are not symbolic to me.”

German Protestants

● “More people than ever are seriously considering leaving the Church,” says The German Tribune in regard to German Protestants. And there is a real incentive for doing so​—less taxes. In Germany, leaving the Church involves deregistering at a local registry office, and this allows exemption from paying tithes as a percentage of income tax. “Seventeen per cent of Protestants questioned said they were considering deregistration. Seven per cent said they were virtually decided or planned to do so as soon as possible,” says the report. Only 6 percent of German Protestants regularly attend church services.

Man’s Best Friend?

● Dogs are responsible for more than 70,000 cases of infection in humans each year, according to Dr. David Baxter and professor Ian Lack of Manchester University. The report, taken from the Daily Telegraph of London, says this figure includes 31,000 cases of infections from dog bites, up to 14,000 cases of acute diarrhea, and 9,000 cases of ringworm. The figure also includes 16,000 cases of toxocariasis, which can lead to blindness in humans and which particularly affects children.

Pet Funerals

● The pet funeral business is doing very well in Japan. The Asahi Evening News reports that one company earns 30 million yen ($120,000, U.S.) a year from pet funerals. The death of a large dog could cost the grieving owner more than $800, including $152 for “tape-recorded sutras of his choice played during the funeral service,” says the article. Funerals also are held for cats and birds, although dogs account for 70 percent of the business.

‘Hearing Aids for Parents’

Listening to the Great Teacher is a unique book for parents and children. The stories are designed in a way that encourages you to ask your child questions. This, in turn, encourages your child to become more involved and to learn to think. Equally important, it helps you to hear how your child really feels about things.

Please send, postpaid, the 192-page, hardcover book Listening to the Great Teacher. I enclose $1 (U.S.).

April 4 1985​—A Day to Remember

The evening before he died, Jesus shared a loaf of unleavened bread and a cup of wine with his apostles and said, “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”​—Luke 22:19.

This year the anniversary of his death falls on Thursday, April 4, after sunset.

As a result, Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world will be gathered this special night to repeat this Memorial in the manner Jesus requested. You are most warmly invited to join us. Please check with Jehovah’s Witnesses locally for the exact time and place of the meeting.